toon_don

Agree with most of that, but I don't think you can lump Marcotti in with the rest of them. He's hugely knowledgeable, and doesn't tend to talk in mindless cliches like a lot of the other pundits.

"Statistics are like mini-skirts, they give you a good idea, but hide the important parts."

Wouldn't come apparently. Still being paid by West Ham so consequently wants more a lot more money than Hughton is currently on to make it worth his while. Can't blame him really. I think he's had enough of being an assistant as well. He was after the Hibs job apparently.

Cattermole, Henry and De Jong are dirty bastards without doubt, and have got that reputation. However what really annoys me is those players who are constantly dirty but seems to have referees and the media alway turning a blind eye. So with that in mind: Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes, Paul Scholes. Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard, Steven Gerrard.

He's right, Liverpool are infinitely bigger than us what with all those League titles they've won recen...Oh wait.

It was as good as any Old Firm game imo, certainly better than the one I've been to which was ironically a 5-1 win to Rangers. Sound like Frank fuckin Butcher the day like with all the shouting and smoking yesterday. A mate took me along to the Celtic Arsenal Champions League game last season, and the atmosphere that night was pretty spectacular, but yesterday was unbelievable at times. I had to leave my house at 6am to get to the game, and didn't get home till gone midnight, but I could do it every day to witness that. And I don't agree with much you say Stevie , but I thought you were spot on with what you said before the game about us winning. There are some derbies where I always expect one side to come out on top, and this is one of them. Irrespective of form I expect Arsenal to beat Spurs, I expect Man United to beat Man City, and I expect Newcastle to beat Sunderland. In each of those games, one side has such an inferiority complex to the other, and it's worth a goal headstart in my book. That's right, even though we've beaten them three times i the last 10 year, I always expect Germany to beat England with the same ethos you mentioned. Where were you travelling back to like Peterhead, long old poke that like? Exactly I'm up in Aberdeen actually (although I'm really a Londoner), so not too far out. I booked my train tickets back before the kick-off time was moved, so I had a load of time to kill in the city after the game, and I'm glad I did. Lovely train journey that from Aberdeen, probably the favourite one I've ever done. Glad you enjoyed your day. 6 cans on the train home was it? Aye it's gorgeous when it runs along the cliff tops. And yeah there were a few drinks on the way back, made running for my connection at Edinburgh a bit tricky though

It was as good as any Old Firm game imo, certainly better than the one I've been to which was ironically a 5-1 win to Rangers. Sound like Frank fuckin Butcher the day like with all the shouting and smoking yesterday. A mate took me along to the Celtic Arsenal Champions League game last season, and the atmosphere that night was pretty spectacular, but yesterday was unbelievable at times. I had to leave my house at 6am to get to the game, and didn't get home till gone midnight, but I could do it every day to witness that. And I don't agree with much you say Stevie , but I thought you were spot on with what you said before the game about us winning. There are some derbies where I always expect one side to come out on top, and this is one of them. Irrespective of form I expect Arsenal to beat Spurs, I expect Man United to beat Man City, and I expect Newcastle to beat Sunderland. In each of those games, one side has such an inferiority complex to the other, and it's worth a goal headstart in my book. That's right, even though we've beaten them three times i the last 10 year, I always expect Germany to beat England with the same ethos you mentioned. Where were you travelling back to like Peterhead, long old poke that like? Exactly I'm up in Aberdeen actually (although I'm really a Londoner), so not too far out. I booked my train tickets back before the kick-off time was moved, so I had a load of time to kill in the city after the game, and I'm glad I did.

It was as good as any Old Firm game imo, certainly better than the one I've been to which was ironically a 5-1 win to Rangers. Sound like Frank fuckin Butcher the day like with all the shouting and smoking yesterday. A mate took me along to the Celtic Arsenal Champions League game last season, and the atmosphere that night was pretty spectacular, but yesterday was unbelievable at times. I had to leave my house at 6am to get to the game, and didn't get home till gone midnight, but I could do it every day to witness that. And I don't agree with much you say Stevie , but I thought you were spot on with what you said before the game about us winning. There are some derbies where I always expect one side to come out on top, and this is one of them. Irrespective of form I expect Arsenal to beat Spurs, I expect Man United to beat Man City, and I expect Newcastle to beat Sunderland. In each of those games, one side has such an inferiority complex to the other, and it's worth a goal headstart in my book.

My first derby and the first time I've witnessed a Newcastle home win in 12 attempts I've been at big games before at various grounds, but I've never ever heard anything like yesterday, especially when the whole ground chanted Hughton's name. It was deafening.

You fucking tit. What are you doing here, seriously? you can't fucking see it? It's fucking obvious. You say this to me come may, eh? We may well get relegated and it may be down to Hughtons tactics but none of them today can be questioned. Nolan? Perch? Ameobi? You're saying them decisions cannot be questioned? That's selection, not tactics K-Dogg. Get with the programme. Okay then, time to question tactics. Nolan behind shola? no no no. Barfa out the right wing? no no no. Shola lone striker? no no no. So you don't think we played well today, and were unlucky not to get something out of the game?

Even though we lost I think we can be pretty proud of the performance today. Totally outplayed them in the first half, even after their hatchet-man injured our best player. For all the stick Hughton gets for his team-selection, I thought every-one apart from Perch had a really good game. Even though he had a few poor touches, Ameobi lead the line pretty well, and should have had a blatant penalty, and I though Nolan had a decent game as well.Gutierrez was absolutely sensational, and Tiote is going to be a real star for us (a defensive mid who can actually play, who'd have thought it?). Performances like the one today will have us win a fiar number of games, and keep us up.

If Gomez' leg had been planted there his career could have been over, and Henry is a big a thug as you're likely to see in the Premiership. For those who haven't seen it: Henry 'challenge'

4-5-1 isn't necessarily a defensive formation, it depends on how you play. I don't think we were defensive against Blackpool, and when you start with 2 wingers and a shadow striker (yes I know it's only Nolan but still) it's harsh to call that overly negative in my view. If it had been like the beginning of last season where we sometimes lined up with a midfield of Gutierrez, Smith, Nolan, Barton and Guthrie then I'd be inclined to agree with you, but that hasn't been the case. If he was to drop Nolan and stick Ben Arfa in the hole, with Gutierrez out wideit would be the same system, but no-one could say it was negative or defensive.

23,000 home fans, total disgrace with attractive opposition, and reduced prices, we were getting nearly double in the Intertoto. Like I say there's not a more fickle crowd in world football. Easily the worst supporters in this country. We only got 28,000 against Alkmaar in the last 16 of the competition... Ebbe Skovdahl: "Statistics are just like mini-skirts, they give you good ideas but hide the most important thing."

I was massively excited when we signed Luque, having seen him in the Champion's League with Deportivo. That injury he picked up in his second game here ruined him tbh.

Just to pick up on this quickly, Gudjohnsen is similar to Smith in that he apparently doesn't see himself as a striker any more. Had we signed him he'd be competing for the Nolan/Ben Arfa role rather than playing as a centre forward.

see thompers, you don't answer me, because you harp on about the last few years but are unable to put the whole Hall/Shepherd era into it's correct context. Mike Ashley will never match the european qualifications and league positions, the changes to the club, the raising of the clubs profile, that they did while he has a hole in his arse. You should let this go, and accept it. Finishing 14th is not good enough for a club like us, it never is, and we need owners who realise this and understand this and attempt to do better, much better. To be fair, if, hypothetically, Hall and Shepherd were to take over now, they'd be unlikely to replicate that sort of success either. However ambitious you are (and that's not to say we shouldn't aspire to great things, of course we should), to do the kind of things we did in the mid-90s would require someone with Man City levels of wealth to chuck money at us. No-one should ever forget or denigrate the success we had under that regime, but we shouldn't repeat their mistakes either. If we were to get Keane, even on loan, I don't see how anyone could argue we haven't shown a reasonable level of ambition in the transfer market.

I think that's very harsh. Whatever his questionable talents, he always says how much he loves playing for his hometown club, and he's played loads of games while carrying pretty serious injuries, which isn't something many other players we've had could be accused of.

I'm stunned! To be fair to him though (yes I realise what I'm saying), would you spend any more time playing in front of 16,000 people at a rugby ground than you had to?

Leeds, Portsmouth, Rangers,- you're right - ambition is a great thing you're happy going back to the Westwood and McKeag days then and wish the Hall/Shepherd days had not happened. ? This constant references to Leeds don't half make me laugh. Would any of their supporters say they would rather have stayed solvent and been a yo-yo club than reach the semi finals of the European Cup ? At the end of the day, its all about having memories to look back on in football and take success when it is there. Who the fuck wants to remember decades of nothing but underachievement, like you appear to wish. You don't half spout some shite sometimes Rob, and you should know better. I'd rather be Portsmouth - at least they got to win the cup aye. Show me a pompey supporter who said when they won the cup "we shouldn't be enjoying this lads because in a few years time we will be in the shit". Laughable. Pompey fans are very lucky that they even have a club to support after what the idiots in charge of Portsmouth did.

I agree with that to be honest. Although he undoubtedly did a good job, they spent big without coming close to Champions League Qualification, and as a neutral, my abiding memory of his time there is when he played a team of reserves and children in the UEFA cup away to CSKA Moscow, shafting the fans who travelled out there. He deliberately got them knocked out of Europe so they could push for 4th spot...which they failed to do.

Aberdeen and Dagenham & Redbridge. I've got a season ticket at Aberdeen because I like going to watch football, but if I've got the funds I try to get down to as many toon matches as I can. If there was a straight choice between the two, I'd always choose to watch Newcastle.

I think a lot of the clubs ignored youth development for a while, instead trying to get crowds in buy making expensive foreign signings. Claudio Cannigia played for Dundee for God's sake. Now teams are having to bring players through their youth systems simply because there's no money around, and there are a few really talented players coming through in the SPL now.

I wasn't saying spending money is bad, we need investment, just querying whether some of those transfers represent value for money. I would argue that £6.5m for Fletcher and £10m for a Fulham reserve is paying way over the odds, but there you go. And if success was judged by the ability to throw money at problems, ourselves and Spurs would have a few more league titles to our names. It's spending wisely that counts.

I'm pretty sure he said in an interview that he doesn't feel he's capable of playing as a striker since he go that horrific injury. How that squares with him playing as a combative midfielder I don't know